How To Grow Your Freelance Business With Strategic Partnerships

Since most people begin freelancing because they enjoy working solo, it can seem a bit counterintuitive to reach out to virtual colleagues.

However, in many cases, this is a necessary step to grow your freelancing business. In fact, there are many benefits of creating strategic partnerships with other freelancers and businesses in your niche or complementary niches.

Here are five of the most important benefits.

1. You can create growth through referrals

By reaching out to other freelancers, you can create mutually beneficial referral agreements. This works especially well with people who provide services that are often complementary to one another.

For example, if you’re a freelance web designer, you could go into a referral agreement with a freelance writer. Then, when you get a client who also needs content, you could pass along your referral partner’s information. The writer could do the same for you. That’s a win-win.

2. You and your partners can pass business to one another

If you’ve been freelancing, even for a short period of time, you know that there is rarely the perfect amount of work available to you. If you aren’t hustling to take on new gigs, you’re overwhelmed with too much work. The latter is where collaboration can really help.

If there are other freelancers doing what you do, it may be a good idea to develop friendly relationships with them rather than combative ones. Sure, there will be times when you will be competing for the same business but there could also be times when one of you has work surplus you could share with the other.

3. Collaborating can help you add value to your business

“No, I’m sorry. We don’t offer that service.” Every freelancer cringes a bit when they have to say those words to a client. It’s basically admitting to them that you can’t meet their needs. If you find yourself repeatedly turning down requests for a particular set of services because it’s not in your skill set, it’s probably time to team up with someone who has those talents.

You can work with other freelancers as a way to bundle your services with theirs. This gives them more opportunity to expand their client base, while you add value to your own. This approach works especially well if you reach out to newer or smaller freelancers and businesses.

4. It can help you increase your social media audience

Collaboration isn’t just about increasing sales and getting new clients. It’s about creating new relationships with your strategic partners and their audience as well. Even if you never exchange client lists or work together on any projects, it’s still a good idea to reach out to other freelancers and small businesses.

As these relationships grow, there may be future opportunities to work together to promote your products or services on social media. These might include mutual giveaways, guest blogging, or cross-promotional efforts.

5. You might learn about new targets or identify new needs

When you collaborate with other freelancers, you’ll learn about who they are targeting and the needs they are meeting. Through this, you might be able to identify target markets that you aren’t reaching, and needs that neither you nor your strategic partners are meeting. This is a great way to find where untapped markets exist.

Of course, this is where you want to tread carefully. The goal is to reach new audiences and to widen your offerings. It isn’t to step on toes or to steal clients from your partners. For example, if you are in financial and investment services and work with freelance tax accountant, you’re going to create some resentment if you suddenly start offering tax accounting services as well.

There are plenty of benefits to working with small businesses and other freelancers. These cooperative relationships can help everyone involved increase their social media reach, meet their client’s needs and introduce their products or services to entirely new audiences.

Do some research to learn who may be offering services that would bundle well with yours or who is targeting a similar audience. Then, try to build a mutually beneficial relationship.